MOVING AWAY FROM HOPE
Colossians 1:21-23 NKJV
21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
The letter to the Colossians is one of my favorites of Paul’s gospels. As in Galatians, Ephesians, and Philippians, this letter contains great teachings and correction. Paul reveals some great truths of being in union with Jesus, the One Paul says is “before all things and in Him all things consist.” And that Jesus is the head of the body the church. And that Jesus has reconciled all things to Himself, and this information is all in this first chapter. The first chapter is deep enough to swim in for quite some time.
Our verses for today describe the condition of the Colossians before Christ. Their condition describes our condition before receiving Jesus as our Lord. Alienated and enemies in our mind by wicked works. Yet, in this condition, we are now reconciled to God by Jesus. Through the body of Jesus and His death, He has brought us into relationship with God. And not only have we been brought into relationship, but we have been made holy, blameless, and above reproach in His sight. It’s too easy to gloss over these words. We were all once separated from God and enemies in our mind. What we were doing was not right. Maybe society would have given us a pass, but we didn’t look good to God. So in the middle of this condition, Christ died for us to bring all who receive Him into union with God—no longer separated but reconciled. To reconcile means to reestablish a close relationship between. God and man had been separated but now brought back together through Jesus.
But wait, there’s more. We’ve been made holy, blameless, and above reproach in God’s sight. We’ve been made that way, and now we live that way as we continue in the faith. We stay in the faith stable and steadfast, not shaky and flighty. And then Paul mentions something important, not moved away or shifted away from the hope of the gospel. We need to key on this. Not moved away from the expectation of good that is in the gospel. We evidently have the ability to move away from hope. But where are we going to go?
There was a time in my life that I was in a situation where I had no devotional life and no support from a local church. I had been sincerely born again and filled with the Spirit, but I allowed myself to become distracted and weakened spiritually and moved away from the hope of the gospel. I was not anti-God or even upset with God, but I had shifted locations spiritually. I moved; God never did. There are too many things in the world we live in that work to move us away from the hope we have in Christ. We can get offended if things don’t go our way. We can get distracted with the cares of living life. We can let our desires move us away from our hope. It’s as if there is a current in this world moving us away from hope if we don’t stay intentionally grounded and stable in the faith. Choosing not to stay in the faith is the first step toward shifting away.
The good news is if we have moved away from the hope of the gospel, we can move back to hope. I did that over 40 years ago and have not moved away since. Not perfect, but not moving.
PRAYER
Lord, thank You for making me holy, blameless, and above reproach in Your sight. Thank You for reestablishing a close relationship with me through Jesus. I purpose to remain stable and steady in the faith. I choose to stay with the hope of the gospel.